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The Book of the Damned
·
Charles Fort
139
My
own
notion
is
that
there
is
very
little
deliberate
misrepresentation
in
the
writings
of
scientific
men:
that
they
are
quite
as
guiltless
in
intent
as
are
other
hypnotic
subjects.
Such
a
victim
of
induced
belief
reads
of
a
stone
ball
said
to
have
fallen
from
the
sky.
Mechanically
in
his
mind
arise
impressions
of
globular
lumps,
or
nodules,
of
sandstone,
which
are
common
almost
everywhere.
He
assimilates
the
reported
fall
with
his
impressions
of
objects
in
the
ground,
in
the
first
place.
To
an
intermediatist,
the
phenomena
of
intellection
are
only
phenomena
of
universal
process
localized
in
human
minds.
The
process
called
"explanation"
is
only
a
local
aspect
of
universal
assimilation.
It
looks
like
materialism:
but
the
intermediatist
holds
that
interpretation
of
the
immaterial,
as
it
is
called,
in
terms
of
the
material,
as
it
is
called,
is
no
more
rational
than
interpretation
of
the
"material"
in
terms
of
the
"immaterial":
that
there
is
in
quasi-existence
neither
the
material
nor
the
immaterial,
but
approximations
one
way
or
the
other.
But
so
hypnotic
quasi-reasons:
that
globular
lumps
of
sandstone
are
common.
Whether
he
jumps
or
leaps,
or
whether
only
the
frowsy
and
base-born
are
so
athletic,
his
is
the
impression,
by
assimilation,
that
this
especial
object
is
a
ball
of
sandstone.
Or
human
mentality:
its
inhabitants
are
conveniences.
It
may
be
that
Mr.
Symons'
paper
was
written
before
this
object
was
exhibited
to
the
members
of
the
Society,
and
with
the
charity
with
which,
for
the
sake
of
diversity,
we
intersperse
our
malices,
we
are
willing
to
accept
that
he
"investigated"
something
that
he
had
never
seen.
But
whoever
listed
this
object
was
uncareful:
it
is
listed
as
"sandstone."
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